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Thursday, April 4, 2013

This is a "State of Grace"

Hey Everyone!

So, yes, I have pretty much decided that over these next few weeks I will just do all of my favorite songs off of Taylor Swift's album, "Red". After deciding this, I thought "Why not start at the beginning?". So I am! "State of Grace" is the first song on the album and on the deluxe version of this CD, there is an acoustic recording of this song that is absolutely phenomenal.
This song's style is a little different from some of her past stuff. Some have compared its sound to that of U2, Muse, and The Cranberries. It's pretty interesting and the drum beat is really cool- it's one of my favorite parts of the song. As for Taylor's description of the song, she says:

“I wrote this song about when you first fall in love with someone — the
possibilities, kind of thinking about the different ways that it could
go. It’s a really big sound. To me, this sounds like the feeling of
falling in love in an epic way.”-Taylor Swift

Lyric analysis time! Click here (as always) to view the lyrics. The first verse here is really talking about life, I think. It's talking about how most people are just caught up in their busy lives. And I think the last two lines speak of how love has become an invaluable thing in our culture. Now people change their minds about their relationships all the time and someone can say "I love you" one second and be gone the next. Hence, "We fall in love till it hurts or bleeds or fades in time". Now the chorus here is the most important part of this song. It shows what this song is really about- falling in love unexpectedly. And falling in such a way that you know you will never be the same. It's about when someone enters your life and they have a tremendous impact on you and that's something to look forward to, whether they remain in your life or not. And the second verse really displays those feelings of a returned hope and what it feels like to let yourself fall again. When we are hurt, we build walls. And when we meet someone and unexpectedly find these feelings again, we let our guard down. Sometimes this can be bad (for example, I feel that sometimes I let my own guard down far too easily) but other times you simply can't help it. There are just some people out there who know how to break down your walls and before you know it, "All we know is don't let go". And sometimes when you're with certain people, you can forget your past mistakes. You have a clean slate and that is such a beautiful thing.

And this next section is one of my favorites.

"So you were never a saint
And I’ve loved in shades of wrong
We learn to live with the pain
Mosaic broken hearts
But this love is brave and wild"

It's this moment when you realize that sometimes two people with the worst pasts can create the best future. It's learning to let go with someone else. Let go of your past pains and failures and start over. And the next part is also wonderful. Sometimes you just know when something is worthwhile and no matter how hard it is, you fight for it and hold on to it no matter what. And the one line that I think everyone can learn from here is this: "Love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right". And it is. Everyone gets their heart broken- it's impossible not to. And as everyone says, "love hurts". Unless you treat love as something valuable and not to be taken lightly. It is something real and you know when it's real.

So I hope I was able to teach you at least a little something from this song. It's really beautiful- especially the acoustic version. While the original has a sort of alternative sound, the acoustic one is really sweet. I'll put videos for both below :)